Launching her partys campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections,BSP president and Chief Minister Mayawati today accused the Congress of anti-Dalit mentality,saying it was using the CBI and CAG to malign the countrys only chief minister who is a Dalit ki beti. As it attacked the two agencies,Mayawati reserved her anger for the Congress,mentioning the Samajwadi Party and BJP only in passing.

Addressing a massive rally,Mayawati said the CBI had lately become hyperactive in its investigation of the National Rural Health Mission scam in UP,while the Comptroller and Auditor General in its recent audit alleged financial and administrative irregularities at the behest of their masters.

Raising the Election Commission order directing that her statues and those of the BSP symbol elephant be covered,Mayawati said: My statues were erected to respect Kanshi Ramjis last wish. I know you are sad and angry. The only way you can reply is by ensuring the victory of maximum number of BSP candidates with big margins.

While top leaders of other parties have been criss-crossing the state for the past several weeks,the BSP had delayed the start of its campaign to make the last big impression on voters. So todays rally was held exactly just one week before the first phase of polls.

It was the biggest rally held by any party here,and showed the BSPs organisational muscle and the respect that the Dalits hold for Mayawati. The ground overflowed with people including,unusually for UP,a large number of women. Despite her speech lasting beyond an hour,there was enthusiastic response to every war cry of Chad vipaksh ki chhati par,button dabao hathi par (Trample all the rivals,select the elephant).

If the Congress was voted to power,Mayawati said,the state would see a return of the neglect of poor and weaker sections,as had happened during 40 years of the partys rule in the state. It would also mean destruction of small traders because the Congress was committed to FDI in retail,the BSP chief claimed.

The return of the SP,according to Mayawati,would mean a return of goondas and anti-social elements,with the safety and dignity of ordinary people,particularly women,threatened.

As for the BJP,she said,it would only strengthen feudal and communal elements.

Attacking the CBI,Mayawati said it hadnt shown as much urgency investigating the Commonwealth and 2G scam as it had in the case of NRHM because people from the Congress were involved. Nor had it shown speed in investigating the scam in which huge quantities of PDS supplies were sold in the open market during the previous SP government,she said.

The Chief Minister asked why previous 12 audits of the NRHM since 2002 had not reported anything wrong. Since the NRHM was being implemented by a Central outfit,she said,its own officials and cabinet ministers must have been involved in the wrongdoings.

She described the Congress promise to reserve ati-dalits and ati-pichhdas as a conspiracy to divide and weaken them for its own political interest. The Congress wants to follow the British policy of divide and rule, she said.

Mayawati also accused the Congress of neglecting the state,rejecting its request for a special development package of Rs 80,000 crore for backward areas,withholding clearances to several projects just because of political animus and sitting on the states proposal to divide UP into four smaller states.

Still,despite its limited resources,Mayawati said,UP had taken measures to step up power generation,improve facilities in small towns,pushed up the growth rate to above 7 per cent and launched schemes for various sections,including monthly pension of Rs 400 to the poor whose names are not on the BPL list.

The BSP,she said,was the only party that cared to protect the interests of all sections,whether Dalits,backwards,minorities or the poor among high castes.

As for corruption and criminal activities of her partymen,Mayawati said she had inherited both. Admitting that some undesirable elements had got into the BSP,she said she had spared none and all such leaders,including ministers and MLAs,had been denied ticket.